Neurological Disorders in Famous Artists - Part 4

By S. Karger

In this fourth volume of the popular series 'Neurological Disorders in Famous Artists' we once again delve into the minds of writers, painters, and poets in order to gain better insight on how neurological and psychiatric diseases can influence creativity. The issue of schizophrenia, the interaction between psychological instability and drug abuse, and the intricate association between organic wounds and shell-shock disorders are illustrated with the examples of Franz Kafka, Raymond Roussel, and Louis-Ferdinand Céline and their writings. Dementia has been specifically studied before, including in the previous volumes of Neurological Disorders in Famous Artists. It is revisited here in order to present the striking and well-documented case of Willem de Kooning, which inspired a new approach. Apart from issues that sometimes border on neuropsychiatry, purer neurological cases such as post-amputation limb pain (Arthur Rimbaud) or tabetic ataxia (Edouard Manet) are presented as well. Other fascinating life trajectories associated with cerebral or psychological changes include those of the writers Bjornsen, Tolstoi, Turgeniev, Mann, Ibsen, and Pavese.

• Language: English
• Publisher: S. Karger
• Release date: Oct 18, 2018
• ISBN: 9783318063943

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Neurological Disorders in Famous Artists – Part 4

Frontiers of Neurology and Neuroscience

Vol. 43

Series Editor

J. Bogousslavsky Montreux

Neurological Disorders in Famous Artists – Part 4

Volume Editors

J. Bogousslavsky Montreux

L. Tatu Besançon

60 figures, 21 in color, 2018

Frontiers of Neurology and Neuroscience

Vols. 1–18 were published as Monographs in Clinical Neuroscience

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Bogousslavsky, Julien, editor. | Tatu, Laurent, editor.

Title: Neurological disorders in famous artists. Part 4 / volume editors, J. Bogousslavsky, Montreux, L. Tatu, Besançon.

Description: Basel ; New York : Karger, [2018] | Series: Frontiers of neurology and neuroscience, ISSN 1660-4431 ; vol. 43 | Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018038129| ISBN 9783318063936 (hard cover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9783318063943 (e-ISBN)

Subjects: LCSH: Nervous system--Diseases. | Artists--Diseases.

Classification: LCC RC359 .N46 2018 | DDC 616.85/52--dc23 LC record available at

https://lccn.loc.gov/2018038129

Bibliographic Indices. This publication is listed in bibliographic services, including Current Contents® and Index Medicus.

Disclosure. The authors, the editors and the publisher have made every effort to obtain permission for all copyright-protected material. Any omissions are entirely unintentional. The publisher would be pleased to hear from anyone whose rights unwittingly have been infringed.

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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be translated into other languages, reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, microcopying, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Copyright 2018 by S. Karger AG, P.O. Box, CH-4009 Basel (Switzerland)

www.karger.com

Printed on acid-free and non-aging paper (ISO 9706)

ISSN 1660–4431

e-ISSN 1662–2804

ISBN 978–3–318–06393–6

e-ISBN 978–3–318–06394–3

Contents

Preface

Joan Miró and Cyclic Depression

Delgado, M.G. (Oviedo); Bogousslavsky, J. (Montreux)

Abstract Expressionists and Brain Disease

Piechowski-Jozwiak, B. (Abu Dhabi); Bogousslavsky, J. (Montreux)

Louis-Ferdinand Céline: From First World War Neurological Wound to Mythomania

Tatu, L.; Roynette, O. (Besançon); Bogousslavsky, J. (Montreux)

Creative Minds in the Aftermath of the Great War: Four Neurologically Wounded Artists

Maingon, C. (Rouen); Tatu, L. (Besançon)

Writers as Shell Shock Witnesses during World War I

Tatu, L. (Besançon); Bogousslavsky, J. (Montreux)

Édouard Manet’s Tabes Dorsalis: From Painful Ataxia to Phantom Limb

Bogousslavsky, J. (Montreux); Tatu, L. (Besançon)

Thomas Mann and Neurology

Caputi, N.; Birnbaum, D.; Boller, F. (Washington, DC)

Arthur Rimbaud: The Man with Wind Soles – Riders’ Osteosarcoma with Postamputation Stump Pain

Bogousslavsky, J. (Montreux); Tatu, L. (Besançon)

Travelling into Alienation and Neurology with a Painter: Georges Moreau (1848–1901)

Walusinski, O. (Brou)

Neurology in Russian Writers: Tolstoy and Turgenev

Altavilla, R.; Paciaroni, M. (Perugia)

Raymond Roussel’s Cure with Pierre Janet

Luauté, L.-P. (Romans)

Henrik Ibsen’s Battle with Cerebrovascular Disease

Frich, J.C. (Oslo)

Letter to His Father by Franz Kafka: Literary Reconstruction of a Traumatic Childhood?

Castelon Konkiewitz, E. (Dourados); Ziff, E.B. (New York, NY)

Dementia and Change of Style: Willem de Kooning – Obliteration of Disease Patterns?

Piechowski-Jozwiak, B. (Abu Dhabi); Bogousslavsky, J. (Montreux)

Machado de Assis’ Original Sin

de Freitas, G.R. (Rio de Janeiro)

Cesare Pavese: The Laboratory of Loneliness – A study of Among Women Only

Steffen, J. (Cambridge)

Dissociation, Delusion and the Splitting of the Self in The Trial by Franz Kafka: Phenomenology and Neurobiology of Schizophrenia

Castelon Konkiewitz, E. (Dourados); Ziff, E.B. (New York, NY)

Author Index

Subject Index

Preface

Creativity is one of the most fascinating human resources, and its deployment in art is one of its best examples. It reflects closely mind activity, so it is not surprising that either psychological disorders or damage to brain function may modify or alter it. Indeed, psychiatric and neurological diseases in artists (writers, musicians, or painters) often lead to dramatic expressions of creativity, either acting as a stimulus, or causing extinction or loss, or simply changes.

In the following pages of this fourth volume on Neurological Diseases in Famous Artists, we have included examples that are often closer to neuropsychiatry. This is the case for Franz Kafka’s relationship with his father, or with the issue of schizophrenia in his novel The Trial. The artistic output linked to depression with or without a brain lesion is also a fascinating topic, well reflected in many of the American abstract expressionists, Joan Miró, or Machado de Assis, while the interaction between psychological instability and drug abuse can be remarkably traced in Raymond Roussel’s life and writings. Roussel’s case is of particular interest, since he was followed and treated by Pierre Janet, Charcot’s pupil and famous rival of Sigmund Freud. In the writer Louis-Ferdinand Céline, a complex association between mythomania, paranoid beliefs, and devastating pamphlet production is also striking, and is complexified by posttraumatic injuries from World War I. More broadly speaking, this conflict was a particularly interesting setting for the intricate association between organic wounds and shell-shock disorders in several writers and artists.

The issue of dementia acting on artistic creativity has already been specifically studied, including in the previous volumes of Neurological Diseases in Famous Artists, but since the case of Willem de Kooning was so striking and well documented, a new address is proposed here.

Purer neurological cases are also presented, such as postamputation limb pain in Arthur Rimbaud, or tabetic ataxia in Édouard Manet. Other fascinating life trajectories associated with cerebral or psychological changes include those of the writers Tolstoi, Turgenev, Mann, Ibsen, and Pavese. We warmly thank the authors of the following chapters for providing these often extraordinary examples of human life and creativity as being influenced by mind and brain activity changes.

Julien Bogousslavsky

Laurent Tatu

Bogousslavsky J, Tatu L (eds): Neurological Disorders in Famous Artists – Part 4.

Front Neurol Neurosci. Basel, Karger, 2018, vol 43, pp 1–7 (DOI: 10.1159/000490400)

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Joan Miró and Cyclic Depression

Montserrat G. Delgadoa, Julien Bogousslavskyb

aHospital Universitario Central de Asturias, Oviedo, Spain; bNeurocenter, Swiss Medical Network, Clinique Valmont, Montreux, Switzerland

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Abstract

Psychopathology has been closely related with artists. A link between creativity and a tendency to affective disorders has become widely accepted. Several studies have shown that artists suffer disproportionately high rates of mood disorders, particularly manic depression and major depression. The famous twentieth century Spanish artist Joan Miró suffered from depression during the entirety of his life, as was recognized by some authors in private letters. The artist worked using several styles, as well as in ceramics and sculpture. Some of his work reflects the feelings he experienced during the Spanish Civil War and the Second World War. He contributed considerably to the world of art with works such as The Farm as the culminant work of detailism, The Harlequin’s Carnival as one of the main expressions of surrealism, the Birth of the World as the precursor of abstract expressionism, or The Dutch Interiors with mironians shapes, among others. Whether depression was the inspiration for his work, or his work was the treatment for his depression, will never be clarified. However, he left a great legacy for humanity and his work is admired all over the world.

© 2018 S. Karger AG, Basel

Art and Psychopathology

From the time of Aristotle, many social critics have noticed that creative people are mentally unsound. Although creativity is obviously an essential element in many professions, the link between creativity and mental instability is more pronounced in the arts than in other fields [Angier, 1993]. Thus, authors working with creative people found such a high incidence and prevalence of psychiatric abnormalities as to suggest a causal nexus between creativity and psychopathology [Post, 1994]. In the same way, psychiatrists, neurologists and evolutionary geneticists have provided evidence that the relationship between certain mental disorders and artistic achievement is real [Angier, 1993].

A link between creativity and a tendency to affective disorders has become widely accepted [Post, 1994]. Several studies have shown that people in the arts suffer disproportionately high rates of mood disorders, particularly manic depression and major depression, this being up to 10–30 times greater as compared to the general population [Angier, 1993]. In this sense, a specific relationship between creativity and manic-depressive (bipolar) disorders has been proposed [Post, 1994], with the possibility of genetic links, the therapeutic effects of art making, and occupational hazards such as exposure to potentially toxic substances [Schildkraut et al., 1994].

Eminent artists and writers have described hypomanic symptomatology during intense creativity periods; and manics and hypomanics have attributed both immediate and lasting effects on creativity to hypomanic episodes [Richards, 1988]. The periods of either mania or depression are interrupted by long periods of normality in which the artists appear in control of their work [Angier, 1993]. Post [1994] showed that in 34% of patients, psychiatric illnesses had been clearly responsible for the interruption or cessation of creative work, for disruptions of life patterns, and sometimes of personal relationships. Regardless of the blockages and breakdowns which many had suffered, they were powerfully driven by the urge to create. The rapid thought, euphoria, and heightened energy that characterize hypomania enhance creativity [Richards, 1988]. The intense experiences of despair accompanying depressive states provide inspiration and material for creative expression [Schildkraut and Hirshfeld, 1995]. During either manic or depressive episodes, preliminary brain imaging studies indicate that different regions of the brain are perturbed, bolstering the idea that a bipolar mood disorder could be a global arouser of mental activity [Angier, 1993].

Jamison [1989] suggested that artists and writers represent a group at high risk for affective illness and should be assessed and counseled accordingly. Ideal treatment requires the following: a sensitive understanding of the possible benefits of mood disorders to creativity, as well as the severe liabilities, including the risk of suicide and of untreated depression and mania; use of available medications with awareness of side-effects potentially damaging to the creative process; minimization, whenever possible, of drug (especially lithium) levels; the recognition and sophisticated use of seasonal patterns in moods and productivity; and sensitivity to the possible role of alcohol and drugs in inducing, maintaining, or exacerbating mood states.

Post [1994] reported that despite the relationship with pathological matters, and the attempt to restore the balance, it is imperative to bear in mind that the subjects were, over and above their astonishing giftedness, admirable human beings.

Joan Miró’s Biography Summarized

Joan Miró I Ferrà was born in Barcelona on April 20th, 1893. He studied commerce according to his father’s wish, but enrolled in La Lonja School in order to study drawing. At the age of 17 years, he finished his studies of commerce and began to work for 2 years. After this period, he retired to Mont-Roig (Tarragona) due to a disease. Miró’s illness served a specific purpose: his ill health permitted him to persuade his father of his condition, since he was reluctant to accept that his son was too sick to work. When he returned to Barcelona, he made the decision to become an artist and studied at the Art Academy until 1915.

His first exhibition was in Barcelona in 1918 with a clear influence of French trends of postimpressionism, cubism and fauvism. His first trip to Paris was in 1920. There, he met other artists, such as André Masson or Pablo Picasso. During that time he painted The Farm (Paris 1921–1922), which represented the culminant work of the detailism. Joan Miró described this work as the summary of all his life in the countryside.

Along with others, Joan Miró founded (with the poet André Bretón at the head) the surrealist movement in 1924. One of his main works at this time was The Harlequin’s Carnival (Paris 1924–1925). This work was the beginning of the surrealism phase. One year later, in 1925, he painted Birth of the World, which may be seen as a precursor of abstract expressionism.

In 1928 he travelled to Belgium and the Netherlands, visiting the most important museums. When he returned to Paris he painted a series of paintings known as Dutch Interiors, inspired by originals by other authors, but modified with mironian shapes, placing importance on composition elements instead of physical proportions.

From 1928 and 1930, Joan Miró left the idea of surrealism behind and dedicated himself to the collage. He produced a number of collages that were striking for their inclusion of non-artistic materials and their overtly crude construction. This anti-art strategy echoed the widespread sense of social, economic and cultural crisis, and at the same time it sought to provoke a new model of artistic identity. From 1930 onwards, he also dedicated his time to sculptures and ceramics [Jeffett, 1996].

Tim Adams [2011] summarized the three periods of Miró’s constantly reimagined career: his formative years in Catalonia; his exile in Paris in the years of the Spanish Civil War and the outbreak of the Second World War; and his enthusiasm for the radicalism of the 1960s, when he was approaching the late period of his work.

He died from heart disease in Palma de Mallorca on December 25th, 1983. His work is admired all over the world.

Joan Miró and Cyclic Depression

There is substantial evidence, from his own descriptions as well as those of his friends and biographers, that Joan Miró experienced periodic episodes of depression [Schildkraut and Hirshfeld, 1995, 1996]. Deep feelings of sorrow, isolation and of loneliness were rooted in Miró’s childhood. Schildkraut [1996] reported Miró’s comments: I was very much alone. Nobody paid any attention to me. Very much alone because I always looked beyond all those narrow things. I felt that loneliness in a very painful, violent way when I was very young, a mere child. It seems that the heightened awareness that Miró possessed contributed both to his artistic talent and to his isolation from other people, even his father. As Dupin comments, Miró’s love of solitude and his taciturnity without doubt have no other origin [Schildkraut and Hirshfeld, 1995, 1996].

Miró’s first known episode of depression occurred in 1911, when he was about 18 years old. Describing this experience, Miró stated, I was demoralized and suffered a serious depression. Roland Penrose, Miró’s friend and biographer, noted: This was the first major crisis in his life… punctuated with periodic upheavals. Miró recalled that he began drawing to escape from his unhappiness [Schildkraut and Hirshfeld, 1995, 1996].

Between 1925 and 1927, there was a dramatic increase in Miró’s productivity. The surrealist group noted that during this period Miró was in the midst of an almost delirious intellectual effervescence. During these years, Miró painted a series of highly poetic canvases that Dupin termed dream painting works that may have been stimulated by hunger-induced hallucinations, as Miró asserted. He could not afford to eat a proper meal every day, and he suffered from hallucinations provoked by hunger and overwork. His continuous discoveries were driving him to work on and on without rest or interruption [Schildkraut and Hirshfeld, 1995, 1996].

During the 1930s Miró’s art moved in several directions. He made strange and haunting constructions. In some works, his colors began to look irradiated and malevolent; and he depicted angry, ugly figures that seem to have freed him of his nightmares [Kimmelman, 1993]. From the beginning of 1934 and due to the situation in Spain and Europe, Miró found himself unable to draw anything but monsters; the human figure became a grotesque image of teeth and genitals [Adams, 2011]. Miró had sublimated his anger and frustration over the brutality erupting around the world into what he called his savage paintings (1934–1938), inspired by his thoughts about death [Schildkraut and Hirshfeld, 1995]. In an interview at this time, Miró was asked about his state of mind. I am pessimistic, I am tragically pessimistic he said. No illusions are permitted. More violently than ever before there will be a struggle against everything that represents the pure value of the spirit [Adams, 2011]. Miró frequently referred to his depressions, describing in his letters, interviews, and articles how they affected his art. My nature is tragic and taciturn. … When I was young, I went through periods of profound sadness…. I’m a pessimist. I always think that everything is going to turn out badly. If there is something humorous in my painting, it’s not that I have consciously looked for it. Perhaps this humor comes from a need to escape from the tragic side of my temperament [Schildkraut and Hirshfeld, 1995, 1996].

Miró revealed his depression and his desire to transcend suffering in many of his paintings, including the self-portraits that he painted through his midlife period (1937–1938). His comments on his state of mind when painting the Constellations, which Miró created from 1940 to 1941 in the shadow of the Spanish Civil War and the Second World War, shed light on how Miró was able to transform his depressed feelings into energy for painting. Through introspection and meditation, Miró’s spiritual beliefs sustained him in his suffering, allowing his depressions to fuel his artistic creativity [Schildkraut and Hirshfeld, 1995, 1996].

Referring to the depressive side of his temperament in a 1947 interview, he noted: If I don’t paint, I worry, I become very depressed, I fret and become gloomy and get ‘black ideas’ and I don’t know what to do with myself [Schildkraut and Hirshfeld, 1995, 1996]. Thus, it seems that art making, in part, served a healing function for Miró.

Schildkraut et al. [1994] showed how depression played a crucial role in the artistic development of Joan Miró and documented the relationship of the artist’s spiritual beliefs and yearnings for transcendence both to his depression and to his art work. The identification of genius with depression and suffering which we have noted is not necessarily pejorative; however, the romantic genius is destined to play out the drama of life in public [Rose, 1996].

Schildkraut et al. [1994] explored similar issues in the mid-twentieth century abstract expressionist artists of New York, many of whom were strongly influenced by Miró, who may be seen as a precursor of abstract expressionism. A strikingly high prevalence of psychopathology was found in this group. Depression or depressive spectrum disorders (depressive, hyperthymic, and cyclothymic personalities or temperaments) were predominant.

Although there is no clear-cut evidence that Miró experienced manic episodes, the possibility has been raised that he was cyclothymic. Miró’s own descriptions of cycles governing his life and work are compatible with this assessment, coupled with the marked variations in his productivity. On several occasions, Miró spoke of experiencing regular cycles in his work, affecting both the rate and process of his painting as well as his subject matter. Both my life and my work are governed by alternating phases. Yes, indeed, one can speak of cycles in my painting [Schildkraut and Hirshfeld, 1995]. During those few particularly fruitful decades of invention he gave free rein to an imagination that has no parallel in the history of art [Kimmelman, 1993].

Roland Penrose, his friend and biographer, commented: Behind the cheerful, innocent, even tranquil look in his face, Miró has never been immune to attacks of violent anguish and depression. He has, however, always been able to balance the threats of imminent disaster by equally potent forces. It is the ability to live with these tensions with comparative equanimity that gives his presence among others a unique quality and a sense of controlled power [Schildkraut and Hirshfeld, 1995].

A further limitation of the diagnosis is the inability to pinpoint the particular nature of Joan Miró’s affective disorder. As Schildkraut [1996] stated, retrospective diagnoses made on the basis of historical sources, in the absence of direct clinical examinations, are often problematic. So, although there is evidence that Miró experienced cyclicity in his moods, we do not know if Miró had a true bipolar disorder. Moreover, we do not understand the exact nature of the relation between his depressions and his creativity, and we cannot match the depressed state to specific works [Schildkraut and Hirshfeld, 1995, 1996].

Conclusions

Psychopathology, mainly mood disorders, has been closely related with creativity. Joan Miró, one of the most famous painters of the world, suffered from depression from his adolescence. Whether depression was the inspiration for his work, or his work was therapeutic for his depression, will never be clarified. However, he left a great legacy for humanity and his work is admired all over the world.

Acknowledgements

We wish to thank Raquel Lavandera Fernández (Oficina de Investigación Biosanitaria-FICYT/ Oviedo) and Cristina Pérez Bueno (Biblioteca Jacques Dupin/Fundació Joan Miró/Barcelona) for their helpful contributions.

References

Adams T: Joan Miró: a life in paintings. Guardian, March 20, 2011.

Angier N: An old idea about genius wins new scientific support. New York Times, October 12, 1993.

Jamison KR: Mood disorders and patterns of creativity in British writers and artists. Psychiatry 1989;52:125–134.

Jeffett W: Assassinating painting: collage and sculpture as a crisis of identity? In Schildkraut JJ, Otero A (eds): Depression and the Spiritual in Modern Art: Homage to Miró. Chichester, John Wiley and Sons, 1996, pp 159–171.

Kimmelman M: A grand phantasmagoria from a catalan poet. New York Times, October 15, 1993.

Post F: Creativity and psychopathology: a study of 291 world-famous men. Br J Psychiatry 1994;165:22–34.

Richards R, Kinney DK, Lunde I, Benet M, Merzel AP: Creativity in manic-depressives, cyclothymes, their normal relatives, and control subjects. J Abnorm Psychol 1988;97:281–288.

Rose B: Miró finds his vocation as an artist; in Schildkraut JJ, Otero A (eds): Depression and the Spiritual in Modern Art: Homage to Miró. Chichester, John Wiley and Sons, 1996, pp 173–185.

Schildkraut JJ, Hirshfeld AJ: Mind and mood in modern art I: Miró and Melancolie. Creat Res J 1995;8:139–156.

Schildkraut JJ, Hirshfeld AJ: Rain of lyres circuses of melancholy: homage to Miró; in Schildkraut JJ, Otero A (eds): Depression and the Spiritual in Modern Art: Homage to Miró. Chichester, John Wiley and Sons, 1996, pp 112–130.

Schildkraut JJ, Hirshfeld AJ, Murphy JM: Mind and mood in modern art II: depressive disorders, spirituality, and early deaths in the abstract expressionist artists of the New York School. Am J Psychatry 1994;151:482–488.

Montserrat González Delgado

Hospital Universitario Central de Asturias

Avenida de Roma s/n

ES–33011 Oviedo (Spain)

E-Mail [e-mail]

Bogousslavsky J, Tatu L (eds): Neurological Disorders in Famous Artists – Part 4.

Front Neurol Neurosci. Basel, Karger, 2018, vol 43, pp 8–22 (DOI: 10.1159/000490862)

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Abstract Expressionists and Brain Disease

Bartlomiej Piechowski-Jozwiaka, Julien Bogousslavskyb

aNeurological Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates; bNeurocenter, Swiss Medical Network, Clinique Valmont, Montreux, Switzerland

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Abstract

Visual art is one of the means of non-verbal communication that bypasses cultural, societal, language and, more importantly, time differences. It allows for establishing a multilevel connection between the artist and art receiver. Production of visual art is a form of expression of emotions. Art reception involves the initiation of a cascade of emotions and thoughts based on visual input. One of the ways to express artistic content is through abstraction. Abstract visual art is based on portraying elements that do not represent any real, objective shapes, with the means of lines, colours, tones and texture. Abstract expressionism is a form of abstract art infused with strong emotional and expressive content. The combination of expression of emotions in abstraction requires almost direct translation between neuronal function and artistic output without using formal shapes or references as means of communication. That is why it is very interesting to look at the artistic output in abstract expressionists with neurological disorders affecting the brain. Here, we review several key abstract expressionists, including James Brooks, Agnes Martin and Willem de Kooning, and their artistic production in the context of brain disease.

© 2018 S. Karger AG, Basel

Visual art is one of the means of non-verbal communication that bypasses cultural, societal, language and, more importantly, time differences. It allows for establishing a multilevel connection between the artist and art receiver. The production of visual art is